The present inventions relate to data storage, and more particularly to file systems that allow direct reads and/or direct writes to one or more sectors by virtual systems.
Virtualization is a technology that allows a computer system to simulate another computer system. An actual machine that provides resources, such as processing, memory, and storage, is called a virtualization host. A simulated computer executing on a host is called a virtual machine (VM) or virtual system (VS). A VS may run an operating system and applications as if it were an actual machine. When a VS requests a hardware resource (such as storage), the host intercepts and fulfills the request. Request to read or write files may be fulfilled using a pass-through file system, where the host may communicate with actual storage on behalf of a requesting VS.